disney 2008 continues

oh heck... who am I kidding? This trip will never be completely scrapped, I can feel it. The good news is is that it doesn't matter and I am having fun reliving the memories and using my stash. So it's all good.

This started with a PageMap and then took on a life of its own. I had more pictures than were on the sketch so I went for it and added them in and played around. The Disney paper is from Downtown Disney as is the sticker on the side. Added the rub on (here comes the parade!) and used alphabet rub ons for the title. Stitched a few sides of pictures here and there. Added some Mickey heads and called it done.

Pretty happy with it. Now if I could manage to work on the page on my desk. I have ignored it all day. I didn't like how it was going and I'm not sure if I will like it any better now. Thinking that in the light of another new day, it might start to grow on me.


But I did get my Project Life photos caught up (see previous post) so that makes me feel oh so happy and joyful. Kira picked up her saxophone from the school. We had forgotten to pick it up and as I was looking over my online calendar, it dawned on me that we were missing it. We tried to get into the school, but they are doing construction at the entrance so I went to the exit and went in that way. All of the office staff was laughing at me since they saw me coming in and then all around the parking lot so I would be heading the correct direction to leave. At least I made them smile!

caught up!

Follow me to my 2012 Project Life picture of the day blog... click HERE! 

I have taken the time, organized all the pictures I have taken since the end of March and have started posting them again. There will be more posts in the coming days. I didn't want to overwhelm anyone with a zillion weeks worth of photos. I have totally been slacking off on the posting and don't even get me started on the actual journaling. I think I am on the second day of January or something like that. Hoping to work on it over the summer months.

This mommy duck and her babies crossed our street, which was quite a miracle they all made it across, hubby was watching at the door in case she slowed down, he could stop traffic for her. She came across our front yard, jumped our retaining wall and continued across our driveway into the neighbor's backyard and to the wet lands. Poor little ducklings had a tumble from the top of the wall to the driveway but they all fell down and stood right back up and followed mommy. So cute. I was shooting the pictures through the screen. I didn't want to scare her by opening the door.

It was a very hot one here today. This was taken at around 2pm EST. oh boy I am so happy hubby put the A/C's in the windows last night. I loves him tons for that.

last day of school!

After a not so long school year, we finally arrived at the last day of school. Not sure why this one passed so quickly, but it did. It could have been for the lack of snow days that we had. And for that I am NOT complaining. Or it could have been because next year will bring MUCH change to our household and I am not sure I am ready for it.

First off, my little lady will be heading to the Junior/ Senior high school to be in the 6th grade. Not sure if I have mentioned that I am not that pleased with her having to go to this school and I so wish that this town could have made the correct decision in 2005/ 06 to build a new school. Instead feet have been dragged for so long that even if a new school building is voted on and approved, neither one of my children would be going to it. Tis the joys of small town politics and backward thinking. 

I am scared for her but trying to keep a positive outlook on things so hopefully she doesn't pick up on my protective mommy feelings. I'm scared that she will see and hear things that I really don't want her to know at the tender age of 11. I am sorry that the school cannot offer her adequate choices in curriculum to keep her stimulated and learning at the same level that the elementary school has. I am sad that her junior high experiences will be played out in such a cramped and uninviting arena.

Sure a building does not make an education and I have heard such wonderful things about the sixth grade staff; however, I would think it would surely help the education process if teachers didn't have to share rooms/ spaces, windows could be opened and not labeled with signs that say "very broken. Do not open", hallways were wider than a shopping aisle of your local Rite Aid (or whatever drug store you have in your neck of the woods), if the music room was not next to the library, if the library had a larger book collection, if the technology that you and I take for granted would be available for the students (when school is in session it is a strong possibility that you will be kicked off the server because there are so many trying to get on) and if a parent walking through the building could smile picturing their child walking the halls instead of going home and crying hysterically because she felt like she had failed her child for having to send her to this building in the fall. (it was not a good parent orientation for me)

So where does that leave us with Kira's education? Well if the money tree in the backyard would start blooming, we could send her to a private school in the area or there is always the homeschooling option. Neither of which is an option for us. So come August I will drop my sweet baby girl on the door step of the Newmarket Junior/ Senior High School and be miserable and pray she remains the same Kira. Moving out of New Hampshire is also an option that is looking better every day.

Back to the second change that will be coming in August... my little peanut will be heading to first grade for a FULL DAY!! oh my. I am not sure what I am going to do with myself with those hours he will not be here. I will have to eat my lunch alone and miss my guy. Time sure flies.

Here are my happy kiddos on the morning of the last day of school. Looking oh so happy that it ends. sigh  

And here is one of Kira with her BFF Michaela. Such beautiful girls and happy they are friends. Kira was able to take home the paper chain that was in her classroom. oh how exciting for us, I think.

As to how I shall be spending my "free" time... thinking that the housework will get done without tripping over kids (always helpful) and there will be volunteering in my future as I love hanging out at the elementary school and I may be doing a bit of card selling. With all the cards I made this year, I have heard many times that I should sell them and even had a mom offer to host a party for me to get sales and get my name out. I'm thinking it would be fun.

New chapters. Lots to think about. Wishing I could slow down time for a bit. I'll have to enjoy the summer with the kiddos and make lots of fun memories.

pixie dust

In the craziness that was last week, I did manage to get a layout done. I started with a PageMaps sketch and off I went. I love having a starting point, even if the final layout looks nothing like the sketch. It takes so much pressure off of me which makes it easier for me to scrap.

These pictures were taken during the Pirate and Princess Party with Mickey parade. TinkerBell was on top of this treasure chest and would throw out pixie dust on everyone. So darn cool!!

The papers I used were a Bazzill bling for the background and the rest came from a TinkerBell pack of paper I bought at Downtown Disney. The popped Tink in the corner was part of a pack of stickers also purchased at Downtown Disney. The pixie dust was a package of TinkerBell confetti. I glued them down and added small rhinestone blings to the centers in blue, clear and purple. The parenthesis were picked up at CKC one year. The title are rub on letters.

The story behind these pictures and why I used them even though they are quite blurry (she is quite fast as a fairy you know) is one kid in Kira's class was picking on her for having weird color eyes and she was not happy about that at all. I told my dad and he was quite put out that anyone would criticize his granddaughter, especially on her eye color since it is pretty close to his own color. (they are a lovely shade of gray with speckles. If Kira is wearing blue, they turn more blue than gray and when she is wearing green they almost appear green. Magic eyes.) When he came to visit us, he told her that she had very beautiful eyes and that when she visited Disney World in 2006, TinkerBell had sprinkled pixie dust into Kira's eyes when she flew over her head before the fireworks.

While we were at Disney, we told Kira we would make sure that TinkerBell sprinkled more pixie dust into her eyes to keep them so lovely... and wouldn't you know it... she did!! The story will be preserved on the back once I get it printed out. I think it will end up being a tag you can pull out. We'll see.

We all survived the end of the school year. It seems so weird to be out this early in June. We usually have school until late into the 20's of the month. We only had to make up two days this year!! Nice and easy winter. The two days we had to make up were for the hurricane that cancelled the first day of school and then our freak snowstorm on Halloween!! Hoping we are just as lucky next winter.

So I have more pictures to share on the last day of school fun, a couple from Kira's Boston field trip and Kira's friends party. But all that will have to wait. Other things to do right now.

sketch challenge, field day and birthday....

Yes I have been quite busy, but in a totally great way. Below is a sketch we were given to use in my sketch challenge group on FB. It is pretty neat and think it will be used again in the future. I can also see where I would add extra pictures!! I love taking pictures.

And here is my layout inspired by the above sketch. After I took the picture and loaded it to the computer, I realized I did not put the date on the layout so that has now been done. This was Christmas Eve 2008. Kira looks so tiny!! She got to make reindeer food in her class and then another teacher gave her the small bag of food. We had some very happy reindeer that Christmas!

Field Day for the kids was on Friday. The day started overcast and not looking too great. By the time they did the roll call of nations/ classes... the sun was out and stayed out all day. Which was a great thing since the school had rented two bounce slides and turned them into water slides!! The kids LOVED it. Even Alex who hates to have water on his face.

Each class was a different nation and they designed puppets and made flags from their nations. The theme this year was the Olympics. All the kindergartners were Ireland. You can see Alex in the front by the white of the Irish flag. And his amazing teacher in the red shorts on the left.

Kira's class was doing Fiji. Here's a picture of my little lady with her puppet which she made into a tree kangaroo and her flag. She did such an amazing job on her puppet! I love it.

And a friend of ours, took mine and Dave's picture after the ceremony. Something that doesn't happen often since one of us is always holding the camera! Aren't we cute?? I then went into the school and helped with Alex's class while they did their events.

Then it was Saturday and a special Saturday it was. My little baby girl turned 11! I mean seriously. How does one lose eleven years?? I swear she was just being born and look at her! Heading into sixth grade and looking oh so beautiful. I'm afraid to blink since she'll be in college then!

For her day, she wanted me to make her a Piplup cake. ummm sure. I can do that. I found this image on the web and posted it to Pinterest since I am like that. Dave printed it out and off to town we went. This was my first time making a layer cake and learned a few lessons. One... you don't need a ton of frosting in between the layers (but I do like frosting) Two... make sure to level them so the cake doesn't wobble. Three... if you are going to decorate with additional frosting... you don't need as much of the base frosting. We are getting on quite the sugar high eating this cake. Totally not complaining... just explaining.

The black gel we used, was fighting us a bit and running when we didn't want it to. Hence poor Piplup's lazy eye and his crooked beak. But the cool thing is that the gel was glitter gel so Kira didn't mind these imperfections and was quite excited to see it after her bath.

Tomorrow begins our last week of school. Not sure how much learning will be happening, but it will be the end. Alex will find out his teacher for next year on Friday and they are having a step up day. I do believe I will have to be there taking some pictures!!

cards and teacher gifts

The first two cards that I am sharing today are safely in my stash... for now. Again they were both made from the scraps from other projects that were laying on the desk and they screamed to be used. So I did!

The next four cards are for Alex's teacher. There are three of each design. I had fun making them but I really am getting "carded out". Good thing its the end of the year and I won't have to make any more for a bit.

And this is the card purse that all those cards are in. She likes green so I thought this would be a good fit.

This is going to be Kira's teachers gift. I will admit I found this idea on Pinterest and I am so happy I went for it. I had a blast making this up. It was so fun picking out the buttons and the different brads to fill in the spaces as well as the mini star confetti that I have been in possession of for quite awhile.

Here is a close up shot of the J. Kira loves it. Hubby says I have too much time on my hands if I stitched all of those buttons. He may be right. LOL

I think I am off to scrap a layout. Feeling the need to do a page instead of cards. Can't imagine why.

making some cards

I've spent some time making cards lately. Mostly for gifts but a few for me! Go me. I had a friend in need of some thank you cards so my stash was completely wiped out and I had to make a few more to have on hand. This one I made to start filling up my stash... which I promptly sold. I'll need to work on them again. It was made from scraps on the desk and my embossing folders.

These next two are part of a set I made for the last Teacher's Luncheon at the school for them to raffle off. There are four of each design which I think is a pretty nifty gift. And again... I have given away all my thank you cards!!

This is a sketch that was used for the following two cards for the Christmas card sketch challenge group I am in. Yup... five more Christmas cards have been made! Woohoo!!

Instead of an image, I chose to create this fun pinwheel/ flower that I found in the Creating Keepsakes January/ February 2012 magazine under their Tips and Tricks. Pretty simple and looks lovely. I cut the circles out with my Spellbinders Petite Scallop Circle Large dies. I also used one of my embossing folders. The center flower is from a Doodlebug Christmas embellie pack I have had FOREVER!! I had four of them so I made this card four times. The fifth card is below.

I used the same papers and sketch, but switched it up a little since I ran out of the darker green to cover the card. I also used smaller circles and a bit of bling.

The sentiment on both is a Studio G dollar stamp.

Now I am off to make some birthday party invites since we waited until the last minute to figure out a party for Kira. She turns 11 on Saturday!! oh my word... I cannot believe she is that old already!